Federal

Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, who lost the U.S. Senate race to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman last year, was arrested on federal sex charges involving a minor. Giordano, 38, was charged with using an interstate facility to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and with conspiracy to commit that act. FBI Special Agent Michael Wolf said there were multiple victims under age 16, but he said the charges involved only one person. Investigators would not provide any other details.

Some 50 political leaders from nine Western states gathered in Salt Lake City this month to discuss plans to wrest control of millions of acres of public lands from the federal government. One wonders whether, like a dog chasing a car, they've figured out what they would do with the land if they got hold of it? In any case, that's unlikely to happen, based on decades of court battles and settled law. Nevertheless, these angry legislators and local commissioners seem determined to waste time and energy on this futile effort, propelled by a warped sense of history and priorities.

I follow the pollution graphic every day it is published. Seldom does this index ever go over 100; most of the time it is in the 25 to 65 range. The federal bureaucrats constantly publish warnings of dire consequences if further steps are not taken to lower the pollution in this area. The federal, state and county governments are bankrupting this country slowly but surely in the not too distant future. RICHARD V. LAUBACHER SR. Oxnard

Yasiel Puig's journey to Los Angeles - and riches with the Dodgers - is a serpentine tale of drug cartels, nighttime escapes and international human smuggling. Yet in the booming marketplace for Cuban ballplayers, it is far from unique. Since 2009, nearly three dozen have defected, with at least 25 of them signing contracts worth more than a combined $315 million. Many, like Puig, were spirited away on speedboats to Mexico, Haiti or the Dominican Republic. Once there, they typically were held by traffickers before being released to agents - for a price.

Federal housing authorities have failed to suitably enforce laws protecting the disabled from discrimination, an independent federal agency concluded. The Department of Housing and Urban Development ruled out discrimination in all but 2.4% of more than 12,000 complaints between 1988 and 2000, a National Council on Disability report found. By 2000, HUD was taking an average of 14 months, almost four times more than the prescribed legal cap, to complete investigations, the report said.

Great American First Savings Bank said it will probably take a charge on earnings of $8 million to $14 million, possibly in the current quarter to end June 30, at the urging of federal regulators, because of a revision of the future value of the S&L's future loan servicing income. The exact timing of the charge on earnings will depend on when Great American reaches a final agreement with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, spokesman Kenn Ulrich said Friday. Ulrich said Great American expects to recoup the charge as earned income over a five-year period.

The government disavowed a 12-year-old federal report that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived on a Marine base where drinking water was contaminated for three decades. Up to 1 million people could have been exposed to toxins that seeped from a neighboring dry cleaner and industrial activity at Camp Lejeune, federal officials say. "We can no longer stand behind the accuracy of the information in that document," said William Cibulas, director of health assessment for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Federal researchers today reported the first substantial yearly increase in tuberculosis in the United States in more than three decades of record-keeping, and said AIDS is partly to blame. The nation recorded 22,768 cases of tuberculosis in 1986, up 2.6% from 22,201 in 1985.

Regulators have shut down Strategic Capital Bank in Illinois, marking the 35th failure this year -- and second this week -- of a federally insured bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the bank, based in Champaign, Ill. The FDIC said the bank's deposits would be assumed by Midland States Bank, based in Effingham, Ill. Its branches will reopen Tuesday as branches of Midland States Bank.

The world's second-largest active sand dune is in an unexpected place--more than a mile above sea level in southwestern Wyoming. The Killpecker Sand Dunes teem with life, from the graceful desert elk to the resourceful Jerusalem crickets and the spadefoot toads that shovel out holes with their hind feet and back themselves in during the day. The sands themselves seem to writhe in a slow-motion dance with the mighty, constant winds. Such winds first began scraping the earth to create the dunes 20,000 years ago near the end of the last glacial age. Scientists and federal environmentalists keen to preserve at least part of the 170 square miles of dunes hope to get Congress to designate some of it worthy of protection from the one creature that doesn't live here naturally: humans.

DURHAM, Ore. - Oregon officials voted unanimously Friday to jettison the state's disastrous health insurance exchange and instead switch to the federal website, admitting both disappointment and defeat in an arena where the state had been a trailblazer. With its 7-0 vote, the board of directors for Cover Oregon acknowledged that the state exchange was too expensive and too troubled to fix. Although the state has spent an estimated $248 million to get its exchange up and running, it never enrolled a single private insurance customer online.

DURHAM, Ore. - Oregon officials voted unanimously Friday to jettison the state's disastrous health insurance exchange and switch to the federal system, admitting disappointment and defeat in an arena where the state had been a trailblazer. With its 7-0 vote, the board of directors for Cover Oregon acknowledged that the state exchange was too expensive and too troubled to fix. Although the state has spent an estimated $248 million to get the operation up and running, it never enrolled a single private insurance customer online.

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. - The first thing you see on the drive to Cliven Bundy's ranch are the American flags - tied to roadside guardrails, flapping in a hard desert wind. At a bend in state Route 170 sits the so-called Patriot Checkpoint, evidence of the tense power play raging between the rebellious 67-year-old cattleman and the federal government. Then there are the guns. Scores of grim citizen militiamen in combat fatigues - semiautomatic weapons slung over their shoulders, ammunition magazines at their belts - patrol from a base they call Camp Tripwire.

Less than two weeks after federal officials rebuked the Albuquerque Police Department for a rash of unjustified officer-involved shootings, an officer fatally shot a 19-year-old woman suspected of stealing a vehicle before pointing a gun at police, authorities said. Mary Hawkes became the first person to be killed by Albuquerque police since the Justice Department released a scathing report that called for a "systematic change" to address what it said was a long-ingrained culture of deadly force in the Police Department.

WASHINGTON - For decades the Republican Party prided itself for being tough on crime, often putting Democrats on the defensive by pushing for longer, mandatory sentences for convicts. In 1988, that hard-line stance helped sink the presidential dreams of then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was blamed in Republican TV ads for having released convicted killer Willie Horton as part of a weekend furlough program. (Horton failed to return after a furlough and went on to commit robbery and rape.)

April 16, 2014 | By Sam Farmer, This post has been updated. See the note below for details

A federal judge in Philadelphia declined Wednesday to approve a proposed $765-million concussion settlement between the NFL and a group of retired players. [UPDATED, 4:30 p.m. PDT, April 16: Although this was originally characterized as a setback for those pushing for a concussion settlement, attorneys for the plaintiffs clarified Wednesday afternoon that U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody's ruling was more of a procedural housekeeping item. The ruling was submitted electronically late Tuesday and was announced Wednesday.

There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom. Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets. Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees.

Enormous public resources go to foster families and group homes, and those expenditures are appropriate because the county and state are the virtual guardians for thousands of abused and neglected children. As such, the state and the county are duty-bound to ensure that the children receive proper care and, despite any mistreatment at home and despite the turmoil of being sent to live with strangers, are put on a pathway toward a successful adulthood. But Los Angeles County also places thousands more abused or neglected children not with foster families or group homes but with their own grandparents and other relatives, and that's a good thing; numerous studies over many years show that such children do better in the long run than those in foster care - if those family members have the money to properly clothe and care for the children.